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An okay self tanner...if you have the patience

The Piz Buin Summer Sensation Gradual Self Tan Body Moisturiser retails at around £3.99 for a 200ml bottle in most high street stores. I picked up a bottle from the discount store Home Bargains for just £1.79. I hadn't previously used the product but was attracted by the reputable brand name and cheap price. I regularly use Piz Buin sun cream products which I love, and so figured that the gradual self tanner would live up to the high standard of the world famous brand.

The self tanner comes in a tall golden coloured bottle with a flip lid. The 'Piz Buin' name is printed on the front of the bottle in an orange tone and information about the product is also printed in gold lettering. Further information about the product is printed on the back of the bottle in gold lettering. The bottle is very attractive and certainly conjures up images of sun kissed skin with the colour scheme! The bottle is however packaged and sold in a cardboard box which I personally think is a complete waste of packaging - totally unnecessary.

The lotion should be dispensed from the bottle by holding the bottle upside down and squeezing it lightly. The self tanner has quite a thick consistency, thicker than most body lotions. The bottle states that the lotion has a 'summer scent' but I personally think that it smells overwhelmingly of fake tan, which is definitely one of the biggest problems with self tanning products.

It is best to apply the lotion using gloves (to avoid the hands becoming stained), taking particular care to blend it in around the ankles, heels, knees and elbows. Given the thick consistency of this lotion, I find it quite difficult to apply and it takes a long time for the self tanner to soak into the skin and dry. Not only this, but the skin is left feeling quite greasy for a while. If you have the patience or spare time to sit around waiting for the tan to dry, then this won't be a problem for you. However, I like a quick and easy fix to pale skin and this is definitely neither quick nor easy.

I usually apply the self tanner before bed. The morning after, the difference in the colour of my skin is barely noticeable, despite the fact that I tend to use a lot of the product. In comparison to other gradual self tanning products, this lotion has minimal effect. However, after three or four applications on consecutive days, the colour does start to develop, and this colour looks very natural. Out of all the gradual self tanning products that I use, I would say that this particular one gives the best colour. However, this colour does take time to develop and this product won't be suitable if you want to be able to see a noticeable difference the next day.

This lotion does smell particularly strongly of fake tan (if you use fake tan products regularly, you will know exactly what I mean - it is otherwise quite difficult to describe), and it continues to smell this way after application. Even after showering, the smell of the product on the skin is very noticeable and I believe that this is a great downfall of this self tanning product.

To conclude, this is probably one of the poorest quality gradual self tanners currently on the market that I have used. Although it is cheap and is made by a very reputable firm, I personally wouldn't recommend it. The colour is eventually rich and natural looking but it takes several days to fully develop. Admittedly, this is a gradual self tanner, but I would expect the tan to develop a little more quickly. Despite the above negative points, this lotion does moisturise the skin very well and the skin feels noticeably softer after just a few days. I don't think, however, that this compensates for the development time and the poor quality of the lotion itself in that it is too thick and takes too long to be absorbed into the skin.

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was a perfect lotion! would use again!

this Piz Buin summer sensation daily body lotion is perfect! Ive been using it now for some time and i wouldnt regret buying it again.

Ive just recently come back from spain and i burnt on the first day of being there! oops! so i used the lotion to get rid of my tanning lines, well! it worked beautifully! the only concern i have for it is it dosent have the best of smells, however about 30 minutes after application, the smell does sometimes fade, however im not going to let the smell drop the rating!

you only need a small amount of cream however I use alot because the sun burn has gone into a very deep tan! its moisterised my skin and its smooth and soft! i have found the lotion at £1.99! was very pleased!would definatly use again! worth the money too!

thankyou for reading xx

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A gradual self tan which does not streak and moisturises well

I have never been one for using fake tans as I do actually go brown very easily from being in the sun but after sports day, sitting on the school field I accidentally burnt the front of my legs so they went stripy with the back of them staying white! We have out summer ball if 2 days time and I wanted to cover the white parts so this is what I got recommended. I chose this over the other products as it is a gradual tan and you can control the darkness of the colour buy the amount you use and for the amount of days you use it.

The tan comes in a brown bottle with the Piz Buin logo on the front, the back of the bottle has the product information and ingredients. The bottle comes in a cardboard box which needs to be opened fully as the directions for use are printed on the inside of this. This is not a tan which you can use once and have a good brown colour on your body. It is actually a moisturiser which has been tinted and the colour only develops after a few days of use.

It is very simple to use and to do this a small amount needs to be squeezed into the hand, this s very simple to do by lifting the flip lid and squeezing the bottle. The cream is a white colour and not overly thick. The one thing which you will notice the minute the cream comes out of the bottle is the smell. It is very strong and reminds me of peroxide! The smell does stay for about 10 minutes after using the cream but then it completely goes away. The cream should be massaged into the skin, I am only using it on my legs and you continue to do this until all the whole part has been coved, you can see where the cream has gone by the shine it leaves on the skin, there is no colour change at first.

I found it took about 5 minutes for the cream to be fully absorbed into my skin and it is recommended that you do not put clothes on until this has happened.

After the first application noticed how healthy and moisturised my legs looked but they had not gone any darker or browner, I continued to use this daily for a further 2 days and this is when I noticed the colour. My legs started to look much browner and softer. I had a bit of dry skin on my knees and this has now gone due to the cream moisturising the skin as well. I have not had an streaks in the colour and have managed to blend the already tanned part of my legs into the fake tanned parts and there is no noticeable colour difference.

When to bathing I was worried that I was going to wash and remove all of the hard work and colour I had already added to my legs but fortunately this was not the case. There was a slight fade to the colour but I could clearly see that there was a lot of the brown tan left and it did not run or go streaky. A further application after my bath put the colour back to how it was before washing.

It is recommended that hands are washed straight away after using the tan cream and care to be taken on the nails, I have not had any problems with colouring on my nails of hands as I wash them straight away so I can remove some of the smell.

The shelf life for the cream is 12 months once opened. The bottle size is 200ml and I have been using mine for on and off for over 2 weeks and have hardly used any so the bottle will last for well over 1 month.

The cream is suitable for use all over the body but it does not contain sun cream and will not protect against sunburn.

I managed to get my bottle for just £2.99 in my local B&M store which I thought was a bargain price. I have seen this in supermarkets but at nearly twice the price.

I can only give this 4/5 stars though as I have had to drop one for the smell, it does go away but when using the cream it is very overpowering. The colour and results are excellent and it is so much more natural than using an immediate self tan and safer than sitting out in the sun. I would suggest all those planning on getting a bit of colour before going on holiday would benefit from using this product.